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STATES M A N--.E X T R A . 



.{7 ^- TO THE MEMBERS OF THE GET^RAL ASSEMBLY OF ILLINOIS. 

Gentle3iex: The letters with whicli'l have been honored by several ____ 
of you, tendering me support for the Senate of the United States, and 'r Cl 
letters from prominent citizens who are not members, have induced me 
to commAuiicate to you this address, with the assurance that I am not 
insensible to the high dnties which nuist devolve upon whomsoever you 
may select for that station, and that my services are at the will of the 
Legislature. 

This was substantially made known upon the request of some of the 
gentlemen who composed the Democratic Convention which assembled 
last winter at Springfield. 

I have been so long before the public, and have written and spoken so 
much in defence of the Democratic creed, which, in my judgment, 
upholds the great principles of popular liberty, that I need say but little 
as to the course I should pursue if elected. I am one of the authors 
of the addresses and resolutions as published by conventions of our 
Democratic fellow-citizens in 1827 and 1S2S, and tlie sole author of the 
addresses of 1831 and 1839. I mention this, as they contain the creed 
by which my conduct has been governed, and which I have uniformly 
sustained, and shall sustain, whether in or out of office. 

I refer to these papers, and especially the last, as being more full, and 
as containing a more enlarged exposition of my views upon several sub- 
jects ; among which are — 

1st. That the Constitution has not conferred upon Congress the power 
to charter a Bank of the United States; and also of the dangers to be 
apprehended from that institution, or any moneyed institution, with powers 
and privileges analogoiis to it. 

2d. My opinion upon the propriety and constitutionality of separating 
the fiscal affairs of the Government from all banks and banking institu- 
tions, and placing them in the hands of individuals, made personally and 
criminally responsible to the laws. 

3d. A brief exposition of my opinions upon one branch of a subject 
so peculiarly interesting to our State and people, to wit, the public 
domain. 

The first and second subjects are so fully discussed in the address 
alluded to, that I need add nothing to what was then said. The opinions 
then expressed, are still entertained, and I will endeavor to send you a 
copy of that address. 



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The third subject relates to the public domain ; the oiucstions connected 
widi which have been, for many years, among the most important to the 
whole people of the new States. Nor has time diminished this import- 
ance. For the purpose of testing the utility of the propositions which 
have been submitted for the disposition of the public lands, it may be well 
to state the substance of several of them. 

As far back as 1821, the Assembly of Maryland adopted the proposition 
submitted by Mr. Maxcy. This claimed that the public lands should be 
donated to the old States for the purposes of education, in certain pro- 
portions, and upon certain principles therein recommended. Some of 
the other States luiited in resolutions to Congress approving this proposi- 
tion. It, however, did not find sufficient favor; and, so far as a cession 
of the land was concerned, was abandoned. 

In 1S32, and just upon the eve of the final extinguishment of the ])ublic 
debt, Mr. Clay's land bill was introduced into Congress. This bill aban- 
doned the idea of a direct claim to the land, but claimed the money to be 
derived from the sales, leaving Congress to go on and dispose of the same 
under the existing system. The proposition was designed to acquire 
strength to })ass it, by a principle of combination, founded exclusively 
upon money. It was to give 12.^- per cent, to certain new States, making 
no provision whatever for the Territories, and then dividing the whole 
proceeds of the public lands among the then twenty-four States, according 
to their respective federal representative population, as ascertained by the 
census of 1S30. This scheme, you will perceive, which confined the 
distribution to the census of that year, would have given to the States 
east of the Alleganies nearly the whole amount of money to be derived 
from the public lands. New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, with their 
immense population, would have been enriched ; while the new States, 
with their small population, (under the census of 1S30,) wotild have 
derived scarcely any benefit from it. But there was another objection : 
the old States had received the benefit of the unappropriated lands within 
their limits, while the nev/ States had received no such benefit. 

In September, 1833, a public meeting was held at Carlyle to protest 
against the objectionable provisions of Clay's land bill. I was at that 
meeting, and delivered an address, which was printed at the time. T 
beg leave to quote some passages from it : 

" The annual net proceeds of the sales of public lands, said Mr. Mc- 
Roberts, is esdmated at about three millions — say $2,400,000 over and 
above the 121 per cent. This sum, with few deductions, is proposed to 
be divided among the 24 States. The number of members of Congress, 
when the bill passed, was 261. Each vote was, therefore, worth to the 
State of the member who gave it, about $9,175. This was the dividend 



to each, liad every member voted for its passngc. Was not here a most 
controlling temptation ? The precious metals were offered to be poured 
out in quantities sufficient to pave the streets of Washington, and in an 
eternal stream from the west to the east, if its advocates had votes enough 
at roll-call to pass it. 

" Sir, is this just — is this constitutional — to drain and impoverish one 
portion of the republic to enrich another? The States having by far the 
greater Federal representative population are east of the mountains, and 
they would receive the revenue. Thirty years hence the tables will be 
turned. The west will have the greatest population. Do you believe, 
sir, tliat the party Avho now advocate this agrarian scheme would then 
support it? No, sir, never. They are aware of our growth, and they 
intend to sweep the new States of the public lands, before we have suf- 
ficient power to protect ourselves. 

" The roads and canals east of the mountains to be constructed by the 
proceeds of these lands may remain monuments to future time ; and well 
may those who come after us, and in the plenitude of our gigantic popu- 
lation, say, ' We too should have had means to construct public improve- 
ments, but that, in the infancy of our population, our sister States, the 
elder heirs, seized upon our inheritance and wrested it from us.' 

" But what becomes of the Territories, when the whole proceeds of 
the public lands, ' wherever situated,^ are to be divided among the 24 
States ? No inconsiderable portion of the moneys will be drawn from 
Michigan, Arkansas, and Florida, and the other Territories. They are 
to receive no part of the 12^- per cent. The Territories contain meri- 
torious citizens, and some of the finest soil. They are newly populated 
countries, and need roads and canals more than some of the favored 24 
States ; yet the citizens of the Territories, who pay a full share under the 
impost system, are to be stripped of every advantage of the lands. They 
will be entitled to admission into the Union at some day, ' on an equal 
footing with the original States ;' but before that day arrives, the bill, in 
its charity for the people of the 24 States, may have swept the Territories, 
and they find themselves deprived of the common benefits allotted to the 
other citizens of the American Government. Is this just ? is this patriotic ? 
is an act like this worthy to be enrolled in the catalogue of acts of the 
American Congress? 

" Will not the practical tendency of the proposed scheme lead to a sub- 
version of the equality and political independence of the States, and be 
the very entering wedge to consolidation ? 

" That sectional jealousies will find a hot-bed to stimulate their growth, 
in the unequal operations of the proposed system, can hardly admit of 
doubt. The basis of distribution, founded upon ' federal representative 
population,' will give to the States per annum about the sums hereafter 
stated, upon the hypothesis that !^2,400,000 is to be distributed. The 
operations of the proposed scheme can be more readily seen in the fol- 
lowing view of the subject. There are but seven States in which the 
public lands are situated — Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Alabama, Missis- 
sippi, Louisiana, and Ohio ; in the latter of which the lands are mostly 
disposed of The Atlantic States, which contain no public lands except 
what is owned by them individually, v/ith Ohio and Kentucky, would 
receive about 82,180,000 ; while Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Alabaiua, 
Mississippi, and Louisiana, which, with the Territories, contain most ol 



the public lands, and therefore would furnish the money, would receive 
about $220,000. These States and the Territories are thus to furnish 
^2,400,000 per annum, mrder the operations of the proposed land system. 
They claim an equal participancy in the objects of the Union. They 
are in need of means to erect public improvements ; yet the new States 
and Territories are called upon to raise $2,180,000 per annum for the 
elder members of the Confederacy. That is, $220,000 to be put into 
their own treasuries, with the per cent, before mentioned, and $2,180,000 
to pass into the treasuries of States that, in strict justice, had no right to 
a cent of it. It is not so much the price at which the lands are held — it 
ic the withdrawal of the capital that impoverishes the country. 

" Let me ask what country on earth can withstand the operations of a 
scheme as deleterious as the proposed land system cannot fail to be? Is 
it just to gratify an avarice, whose spirits feed upon ill-gotten spoils, and 
whose sympathies seem most awakened when the powers of the Federal 
Government can be successfully used to impoverish one section of the 
Union to enrich and build up another ? The States and Territories con- 
taining the public lands have but few manufactories. The wants of tlieir 
citizens are supplied, in this respect, from abroad. They are consumers, 
not manufacturers ; and have thus paid more than tlieir share into the 
National Treasury, in the way of imposts. If the bill pass, the tariff will 
be increased to make up the deficiency in the revenue, and the miserable 
pittance we would receive, would be more than taken from our people by 
the increase of duties. We should, therefore, be losers in every possible 
view of the subject. The land system operates as a continual drain of 
the circulating medium of the country. The appropriations to national 
objects in the west, by which a return of the money might be produced, 
have been made in a sparing, not to say parsimonious, spirit. The new 
scheme for dividing the proceeds of the lands will cut off all expectation 
of a reduction of price ; of further pre-emptions for the protection of 
actual settlers ; and of (what is most desired by us) a final surrender of the 
lands. 

" Sir, no one can doubt that if the bill referred to pass, the privations 
the people have hitherto experienced will be forgotten, amid the blighting 
curses Avhich the detestable system cannot fliil to bring upon the country. 
A constitution that does not contain inhibitions to the passage of a law 
so partial and unjust, would be unworthy to be cherished by freemen. 

" Sir, if this scheme of dividing out the national territory is once car- 
ried in Congress, who is there, let me ask, that can foresee what will 
become of it, or where it will end? What power, except the power of 
Omnipotence, will ever be able to check and uproot a system founded upon 
combination among majorities, and cemented, either present or in expect- 
ancy, with hundreds of millions of the precious metals? Does any man 
believe that hgaments like these ever can be broken ; or that the system, 
if once established, will be eternal, and totally change the character of 
the Government? All the vigilance which the passion for money can 
excite — all the secret wires which self-interest can stimulate — are combined 
to rivet this odious system upon the western States. But although com- 
binations have carried the bill in Congress ; although expectants have 
posted the amount of their dividends, and are looking, with eagerness, for 
the coming messenger ; the citizens of the new Slates are not without a 
hope — a hope that the scheme will be defeated — a hope that rises up be- 
fore us like another bright bow of promise. 



" One veto has upheld the Constitution, b^r preventing the squandering 
of miihons upon local, and some of thcni useless, objects. Another veto, 
in strict iidelity to the Constitution, has crippled an aristocracy, and the 
god they worshipped, the Bank of the United States." 

These extracts show my opinion t/ioi and 7iow upon that subject. I 
took the ground that the great point to be attained with us was, a surren- 
der of the remaining; lands to the States in which theij vere situated; and 
that, to accomplish this, the unequal distribution system must be defeated. 
The terms of surrender would, of course, have to be matter of compro- 
mise ; but that, so soon as the public debt was paid (this being the primary 
object for which the lands were originally ceded to Congress) we 
should look to this surrender as an act of common justice. 

The reasons are so unanswerable in favor of this measure, that we have 
but to discuss its merits, and press it upon the consideration of our coun- 
trymen, to enlist the upright and the just in support of it everywhere. 

Similar objections existed twelve years ago to granting pre-emptions for 
the protection of actual settlers, that now exist to a surrender, upon equi- 
table terms, of the remaining lands to the States in which they lie. But 
the new States, through their Legislatures, pressed the subject ; and more 
especially Illinois, Missouri, and Alabama. The arguments that were 
presented induced the men of the land, as well as politicians, to examine 
the question ; and the consequence was, its triumphant success. 

In 1829 the question was brought before the Senate of Illinois. That 
body took a decided stand in favor of a change in the then existing land 
system, urging various measures to encourage the settlement of the land, 
and to produce its surrender to the States in which it was situated. The 
report and memorial imbodying these views, as made and printed at the 
time, and adopted by the Senate, were drawn by me ; and I therefore beg 
leave to refer to them as showing the participancy I had, at that early 
period, in presenting the questions to Congress and the country. The 
report would seem, from the journal, to have been made by another mem- 
ber. He, however, is not the author of it ; and I now state the fact that 
the report was my own, and contains my views, as found in the Senate 
journal of January 1S29. 

The House concurred in the memorial, and it will appear, from the sub- 
sequent proceedings of Congress, ( Public Land Documents, volume 4 
and volume 5, page 213,) that the memorials from Illinois, Missouri, and 
Alabama, had no small agency in producing the pre-emption law of May 
29, 1830. This was the foundation of all the pre-emption laws subse- 
quent to that period ; for those that have passed since, are but the revival 
of the act of 1830, with some unimportant modifications. Complaints, 
it is true, have been made against pre-emption laws ; but they were the 
complaints of the speculator. No laws have ever conferred as much per- 



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manent good upon the needy, or protected as many homes and firesides, 
as those granting pre-emptions to actual settlers. 

I claim no merit for the humble part which it was my lot to take in this 
matter. The people were then alive to the question ; and in the discharge 
of a high duty as a member of the Senate, I prepared that report and me- 
morial, as arguments to contribute in producing a change of the land 
system. 

1 advert to this now, to show that we should not despair of success in 
a good cause. An etfort, made by a delegation in Congress capable of 
doing their duty, and sustained by the voice of the new States, could 
hardly fail of success. At all events, the object is one of great impor- 
tance, and I desire to see the trial made. The peculiar situation of Illi- 
nois, in connexion with her extraordinary embarrassments, and others 
of the new States similarly situated, would make the proposed surrender 
especially desirable. I regard this subject, fellow-citizens, as one of the 
most abiding interest, and possessing an intrinsic importance that reaches 
far beyond all local or personal considerations. 

There are other subjects that might be noticed. One is abolition, or an 
attempt to induce the Federal Government to interfere with domestic 
slavery as it exists in the southern and middle States; and the other is 
the assumption of the State debts by the General Government. The first 
is stimulated by a misdirected philanthropy, calculated to destroy the 
very objects of the proposed bounty; to disturb the repose of society; 
and to involve the country in blood. The second is the work of stock- 
gamblers and stock-jobbers in this country and in England, to enhance 
the price of American securities, which have been sold, and are now held by 
them. 

In my judgment, fellow-citizens. Congress has no power to meddle 
with either subject. At the adoption of the Constitution, the institution 
of slavery was fully recognised among the compromises that were indis- 
pensable to the establishment of the Federal Government. No power was 
conferred on Congress to interfere with it, and none, therefore, exists. 
And I hold that those who advocate an interference Avith it, in violation 
of the Constitution, are guilty of moral treason to the Government. 

In regard to the assumption of State liabilities, the Constitution confers 
on Congress the power to pay her own debts, and none others. For this 
purpose she can lay and collect taxes, and for no other purpose. She has 
neither money nor constitutional ■ power to pay the State debts, nor to 
guaranty their payment. And if she had the power, the imposition of a 
tax for that purpose by the General Government, would be more oppres- 
sive upon the people, than for the States to do it themselves. 

Whoever is elected, may count upon a struggle with a great hanh^ in its 



violent and systematic strides for a recharter, with a capital of fifty or a 
hundred millions ; with the question of the assumption of State debts 
and which, if carried, would make our present republic a great consoli. 
dated government; saddle it with an interminable national debt, and place 
t under the control of stock-gamblers, instead of the people ; with the 
grasping spirit of avarice for the public lands ^ first to onich the popidous 
States, and then to purchase up the negroes for colonization, as a boon 
to the Abolitionists, for the support they have given to the federal party. 
These measures are openly avowed at the appropriate points in the coun- 
try, and where the avowal will do no mischief to their cause before the 
election. They are hailed as the harbingers to success, with the undying 
adversaries of free government. The signs of the times are portentous, 
and let no man mistake their warning voice. 

Toward all these obnoxious measures — measures pressed by their advo- 
cates, in open violation of the Constitution, and most if not all of which 
are stimulated by influences proceeding from the British isles — I wish it 
distinctly understood that I am opposed ; and that if you honor me with 
an election to represent the State in the Senate, they will meet with an 
opposition at my hands that admits of no compromise. 

In conclusion, gentlemen, 1 will add, that at the present crisis, the sta- 
tion is one of no ordinary importance to the citizens of Illinois. All will 
admit that it should be our highest aim to direct the action of the Govern- 
ment so as to preserve the purity and vigor of our institutions. This is 
now the only free government on earth. It has done more, in fifty years, 
to elevate the moral and political condition of man, than has been eftected 
by other civil institutions since the Christian era. It has made the name 
of our country respectable in every quarter of the globe, and should be 
preserved at all hazards. 

To do this, our greatest reliance is found in a strict construction of the 
Constitution ; in abstaining from all interference with the just authority 
of the States ; in directing legislation so that its benefits may be enjoyed 
equally by all classes of society, and exclusive privileges by none ; and 
in a steady resistance to monopolies — the deadliest canker upon the body 
politic. 

These are the sentiments of the Democratic party, as maintained by the 
founders of our political church ; and, as such, have ever received my 
unyielding support. They should be inscribed, not only over the por- 
tals of the State house, but over the doors of the humblest dwelling. 
A vigorous maintenance of them is made doubly important at this time, 
and indispensable to their perpetuity^. 

Your obedient servant, 
Danville, October, 1840. SAM'L McROBERTS. 



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